Uncatalogued Resources

WPGS has a wide array of resources that might help in your research. Check out some of our hidden gems.

The bookcase next to the WPGS Help Desk holds several large white binders with miscellaneous church information. These are not actual church records but may be helpful in locating churches where your ancestors worshiped. Items may include brief histories written by the church, anniversary celebration brochures or newspaper articles. Each binder has a table of contents at the front. The material is organized by geographic area (Pa. or out-of-state) and then by denomination.

Additional notes on specific congregations may be available in vertical files in the WPGS office.

These file folders are organized by the last name with an index card cross-reference. Content comes from donations and letters of inquiry. Information in the files varies from a one-page letter to lengthy but unsourced family tree printouts to reunion pamphlets and articles.

The family files are available whenever a WPGS volunteer is on duty at the WPGS Help Desk.

WPGS members can access an index of FFWP Ancestors through the members-only area of this website. Once you locate an ancestor of interest (the person who moved to Western Pennsylvania before 31 Dec 1810), you can request the Ancestor File for that person. The file will include documentation that the descendant FFWP Member(s) used to join. Files may be viewed in person only when a WPGS volunteer is at the WPGS Help Desk. 

Located in several bookcases along the back wall of the WPGS library, the journals are stored in labeled magazine boxes, arranged from left to right in the following order:

  1. General genealogy
  2. Ethnic & religious groups
  3. United States genealogy (general)
  4. States (non-Pennsylvania)
  5. Pennsylvania (general)
  6. Pennsylvania counties (alphabetically) 

Many WPGS members have filled out four/five-generation ancestor charts and submitted them for research use. Members can look at the digitized forms in the Members Only section “Member Ancestor Charts” and indexed by last name.  

This was a way to connect fellow researchers before the time of email lists, message boards, and blogs. Throughout the years’ researchers have entered surnames (and given names) for the persons they are researching into this notebook, along with a submitter number. We now have an online Surname Project with member entries that is accessible to the public on the WPGS website.  However, the entries from the previous Surname Book have not been added to the online Surname Project.

We will search in our WPGS collections for a specific individual, for an hourly fee. Please complete the required forms at Research Services. 

Below is a list of some of our uncataloged microfilm. Several of these rolls have been digitized and are available to WPGS members by clicking here.

ENON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Lawrence County, PA;
Records 1873-2012; 1 roll, filmed 2013;
same roll:  LITTLE BEAVER CEMETERY, Enon Valley, Lawrence County, PA
Records 1877-1981; digitized

FIRST ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA;
Records 1837-1940;
3 rolls, filmed 2017; digitized

FIRST TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, formerly First German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA;
Records 1837-1994; 4 rolls, filmed 2012;  
early records in German; digitized

HILLTOP UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Pittsburgh (Allentown Section), Allegheny County, PA;
Records 1873-1986;
various church mergers; 4 rolls, filmed 2017; digitized

NORTH LIBERTY UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Grove City, Mercer County, PA;
Records 1880-2018; 1 roll, filmed 2018; digitized

TOWER PRESBYTERIAN, Grove City, Mercer County, PA;
Records 1853-2014; 2 rolls, filmed 2018; digitized

TRINITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Mercer, Mercer County, PA; Records 1842-1963; 1 roll,  filmed 2019; same roll:  E. DONLEY GRAY FUNERAL HOME, Pittsburgh, Allegheny    County, PA, filmed 2019

ST. PAUL’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, Tarentum, PA; Records 1890-1954, filmed         
2010 (item 2 on Roll #332, 3rd roll, Presbyterian Church of Wilkinsburg)

GAR Post 80, Andover, OH, filmed 2010 (item 3 on Roll #332, 3rd roll, see previous item)

ALLEGHENY COUNTY NATURALIZATIONS, Allegheny County, PA; 1799, 1821-1889;
22 rolls, filmed 2014-2015

ALLEGHENY COUNTY NATURALIZATION LEDGER BOOKS, Allegheny County, PA; 4 rolls
(Rolls 23-26 of Allegheny County Naturalizations), filmed 2015

BETHEL TOWNSHIP, Justice of the Peace Ledgers, 1933-1934, 1935-1937; Bethel Park, Allegheny      County, PA; 1 roll, filmed 2018

GLASS ZETTE, Glenshaw Glass Newsletter; 1948-1949, 1967-1972; 1 roll, filmed 2007
same roll: UNSEATED LANDS, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA 1796-1804; filmed 2008

MAYHOOD GENEALOGY; 1 roll, filmed 2018

WALTER FAMILY, list of family names in box with films; 4 rolls, filmed 2016